Israeli troops launched targeted operations in southern Lebanon on Monday as the army widened its campaign against Hezbollah ahead of a possible ground invasion.

Israel’s ground operation in southern Lebanon will likely expand in the coming days, a source told the Telegraph, suggesting Israel wanted to strike while they believe Hezbollah is weakened.

An Israeli official added that elite commandos were targeting Hezbollah infrastructure, including weapons sites and command and control centres, in a bid to push its fighters away from Israel’s northern border.

Speaking on Monday, Naim Qassem, Hezbollah’s deputy leader, said the group was “ready for a ground incursion”, despite suffering significant losses in recent weeks, including Hassan Nasrallah, its long-term leader, in an Israeli strike on Beirut on Friday.

An Israeli intelligence source told the Telegraph that Israel is moving quickly in the wake of Nasrallah’s assassination in an attempt to leverage its advantage. “The question now is what the US will do, and I just hope the US doesn’t get involved and pull us back,” the source added.

Meanwhile, Yoav Gallant, the defence minister, strongly hinted that Israeli troops would invade Lebanon. “We will use all of our capabilities – including you,” Mr Gallant told soldiers on the northern border with Lebanon on Monday.

“We will deploy whatever is needed – you, other forces, from the air, from the sea, and from the land,” to return the 60,000 displaced civilians in northern Israel, Mr Gallant said.

Israel has already redeployed soldiers from Gaza to the northern border in recent months, shifting focus to its campaign against Hezbollah, whose fighters  have launched 9,000 rockets across the Lebanon border since fighting broke out in October last year.

As Israel continues to expand its campaign against Hezbollah, MGI Rafi Milo, the commanding officer of the home front command, told local authorities there are “gaps” in the country’s air defences, which are “not impenetrable”.

‘Stay alert, stay ready’

“Therefore, when you hear an alert, immediately enter a sheltered space,” Mr Milo said. “If you don’t have access to a sheltered space, choose the safest space available and enter it – this saves lives. Stay alert, stay ready, and follow the instructions.”

It came as Najib Mikati, Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, said he is ready to fully implement a UN resolution that was introduced to end Hezbollah’s armed presence south of the Litani River. This would involve deploying the Lebanese army south of the river, which lies around 30 km from the country’s southern border.

Hezbollah is barred under UN Security Council Resolution 1701 from maintaining a military presence south of the river, which it has frequently violated.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also targeted central Beirut for the first time since the conflict began nearly one year ago in the wake of the Hamas terror attack on Oct 7. An Israeli air strike hit a residential apartment building in Cola, a neighbourhood within Beirut’s central city limits, at about 1am local time on Monday.

According to Lebanese media, the strike killed four people, including three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.